ExxonMobil slashes LNG price to India in bad omen for producers

India has won a price cut on a 20-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal with global giant ExxonMobil Corp (XOM.N) in a rare contract renegotiation, a bad sign for producers in a heavily oversupplied global market. In a trade-off for ExxonMobil, India’s Petronet LNG (PLNG.NS) will increase its volumes from the Gorgon LNG project in Australia by an extra 1 million tonnes a year to about 2.5 million tonnes a year, but at cheaper rates than initially agreed in 2009. Long-term contracts are rarely revised in the LNG market, and for a big producer to cave in shows how supply from new plants in Australia and the United States over the past two years has transformed the market, analysts said. “This trend is overall a negative for sellers, as they are forced to provide more flexibility to buyers’ needs to maintain their markets,” said Saul […]